The Passing of Time
by CrystalIceSweet
Summary: The problem with being Master of Death is that although Harry can't grow older than 20 but he can still die. He can also end up reincarnated in the past. And that is how he ended up in the 1940s and became best friends with Howard Stark. When Howard asks him on his death bed to take care of his infant son Tony, Harry agrees despite the future complications. SLASH. Pairings undeterm


**Prologue**

**_Master of Death_**

The problem with being the Master of Death, Harry realized, was that although he can't seem to grow older than 20, he can still "die". It was painful and annoying but it was at the end only temporary. His earthly body dies from whatever reason but his soul; his essence continues to live on. While everyone reincarnates without fail, Harry does it while knowing he has reincarnated. His memories and knowledge and power are all reborn in to the new body and Harry is forced to live until someone manages to off him once more.

Rinse and repeat.

There was one technicality to this whole reincarnation thing that no one has told him about. The fact is, Harry doesn't always know when he'll end up the next time. It can actually be 1000 years in the future or 1000 years in the past. There was no pattern to his appearance so Harry has lived in the middle ages and lived when muggles went to work in hover cars.

This time however, Harry woke up in 1920.

**_Birth_**

His mother was Anna and his father Taylor. They were a simple, normal American family. Anna was British before she moved to New York to be with her husband and they had two other children of young ages. It was only the second time Harry had reincarnated with siblings and he enjoyed the experience immensely. Harry had always loved children but never had the chance to have some of his own. Partially it was because of how unfair it would be to his spouse, partially because Harry has no idea what kind of trouble he'll inevitably attract.

School was a piece of cake and it didn't take long for Harry to be known as the resident genius. At 3, he could already talk, read and do math. It would have been incredible if Harry wasn't a 1000 years old soul stuck in the body of a toddler.

By 10, the elementary school teachers in charge of him recommended to Anna and Taylor that Harry should be sent to a special school for gifted children. Apparently him staying where he was is truly a waste of potential. Harry didn't really mind the switch so by 11, he was off to a private boarding school in Wales.

It was there he makes the acquaintance of Howard Stark.

**_Howard Stark_**

Howard was inventor and a businessman at heart. Even when he was only 15 and barely given any credence by the adults around them, his mind was always thinking up new ways to improve things. Harry didn't have to have 1000 years of experience to predict that Howard would go far and that intrigued him beyond everything else.

It might seem strange to some just how quickly he and Howard became friends. Before Harry, Howard had never had any friends. He had acquaintances and allies but people who he hung out just because he wanted to? There were none. Harry was actually pretty flattered by his position and was regularly the source of envy of all their classmates.

Harry knew that he and Howard quickly became best friends partially because they were the two most intelligent people in the whole place and partially because Harry showed a lot of interest in what Howard did as side projects. They had a good 4 years apart but it never seemed to matter to either of them. Even when they graduated and went on to high school and later university – Howard to MIT while Harry went to Princeton, they kept in constant contact. Howard would tell Harry all about his new discoveries while Harry would regal the older man with his admittedly less interesting adventures.

Harry had been fresh out of his degree in physics at Princeton when Howard appeared on his doorstep one September in 1939 with the news that he has decided to launch a new company he was calling Stark Industries. The company would specialise in research and weapons development, Howard explained, and although he wasn't too proud of this direction, he knew it was going to be necessary with the rapid approach of another war.

In 1941, America enters World War II and Howard was recruited by the government for a secret research department that he couldn't tell Harry about. They grew slightly apart during that time, what with Harry's determination to stay away from trouble and Howard's new position at the center of the source of the trouble, but still talked and wrote to each other when they had time.

In June 1943, Harry was brought in, despite himself, to a project the government was dubbing Project Rebirth. His official role was "technical consultant" but he figured he was actually there to make sure Howard didn't lose his mind trying to get everything done. It was a close call too because the man truly looked terrible and tired beyond belief.

During his work in Project Rebirth, he meets the young recruit the doctor in charge, a certain Dr. Erskine, has chosen. Steve Rogers was his name and Harry was actually taken aback by the grandness of the young man's heart.

The experiment was a success and with the end of this chapter of the war efforts, Harry goes back to his little country side house, relieved to be no longer in the middle of the action. He was sad that he didn't hear from Howard from that moment on and was surprised when the man invited him to his wedding.

His fiancée, a brown haired young woman with an incredible force of character, was charming and polite. Harry was truly happy for the young couple. The ceremony was beautiful and newlyweds quickly moved in to one of Howard's New York Mansion.

But Harry should have known that in this day and age, happiness never seemed to last.

40 year after the end of the war, Harry receives a call from the hospital telling him that Howard and Maria Stark were involved in an accident. Maria died on impact but Howard is barely holding on and has requested him at his bedside.

Harry went, heart in his throat and reached Howard just in time for the man to make him promise to take care of his son Tony. Howard told him that it didn't matter that Harry has never had children before, there was no one else Howard would trust his heir with.

Harry agrees because there was no way he was going to argue with a dying man.

Howard dies quietly and Harry becomes the proud father of one Anthony Edward Stark.

And that is how the story begins.

**TBC**.


End file.
